The morning after the last hard rain in Greensboro, we found this critter in our yard. We think it is a salamander and not a hellbender as the above anphibian had four hind toes, not five. We were hoping to find a hellbender after reading this great News & Record article. Still, to find a salamander when we don’t have a stream in our yard was a pretty curious event.

This week, the sun is rising around 6:00 am and the sun is setting around 8:40, with a little over 14 1/2 hours of daylight. According to THIS convenient length-of-day chart, June 20th and 21st will have exactly the same amount of daylight: 14 hours, 36 minutes, and 44 seconds.  The summer solstice days give us an opportunity to turn over rocks and enjoy nature by day more than any other time of year.

Try going outside on a nature hunt and seeing how many different creatures you can find. Another way to spend your solstice days this week is to attend Greensboro’s 2012 Summer Solstice event this Saturday from 2:00- 10:00 pm.* In the meantime, we’re gonna keep searching for the elusive hellbender.

*see our photo of a previous Summer Solstice event here and here.